Domenico's Restaurant - Levittown

Domenico's has been around since 1967 and is THE italian place to dine in Levittown. It appears to be very small, tucked away in the corner of a shopping center. Once you enter and go passed the pizzeria, you see the place is actually quite large with several dining rooms. The decor is minimal, nothing fancy and a bit outdated, but its the food you come here for. My family has eaten here too many times to count--for pizza, lunch, dinner, get togethers, birthdays, holidays and even catering. Every time we eat at Domenico's the food is consistent. My go-to entrees have always been the Chicken Parmigiana or Rigatoni alla vodka--always delicious! Their portions are on the larger side, so expect to take home leftovers! The side pasta that comes with main dishes is just eh- comes in a separate bowl and is typically under sauced and a bit dry. Then again, most people in my family just let it sit there because they're eating everything else and then we usually take it home and do something with it the next day.

My last visit was for Mother's Day. They had a special price-fixed menu that was very reasonable. I had spinach and ricotta raviolis with alla vodka sauce, my grandmother had chicken francaise topped with spinach and mozzarella and my mother had the seafood stuffed tilapia in a lemon butter sauce. We all ordered something we had never had before (not on the regular menu) and everything was absolutely delicious. Despite many other families being there for Mother's Day, service did not suffer. Service is typically great at this restaurant. When it comes to drinks, they give you your own carafe of soda, water, etc. so you usually don't need refills unless you drink a lot!

Domenico's isn't over the top and although their prices have risen a bit over the years, the portions are always big and service is never bad. I can't say Domenico's is a place to go for a fine dining experience or to get authentic off-the-boat italian cuisine, but it is a great place for families to enjoy great italian food for any occasion. They also have live music on Friday evenings as well as a magician for the little ones on Sundays.

1 comment:

On Christmas Eve our party of 8 ( 4 adults and 4 teenagers ) picked Domenico's Restaurant for a Chrismas Eve lunch. We arrived at about 12:30 and were seated in the second dining area in an alomst empty restaurant. I repeat, the restaurant was not crowded and servers were not running round trying to serve a large crowd.

Let me start off by saying that this restaurant is known to be on the expensive side and lunch was no exception.

We were seated, and menus placed in a pile at the edge of the table for one of us to distrubute. This alone should have been a warning.

I requested water which never was served and we ordered diet as well as regular coke. The waiter came and placed empty glasses at each place and than came out with three carafes of soda. How to tell diet from regular? He pointed to two as diet and another as regular. And after everyone poured their sodas and passed around the carafes, how no to tell, which was diet and which was regular? We had no clue. You think a twist or lemon would have been used to tell the difference. Nope. Also glasses still had no ice and none was placed on the table. I asked for the ice and straws. For some reason he handed one straw only too me. When we took the first drink of the soda we found that they were flat, all of them, no fizz. I actually looked around to see if maybe we were on one of those prank TV shows since this was so unexpected from this restaurant.

Our orders were taken and we waited, and waited. Finally food was brought to four of us and when we asked we were told that the rest would be ready in a few minutes. Fifteen minutes later the other four dishes had not appeared. Those orders were for 2 calzones and 2 slices of pizza. Meanwhile the other four orders of half heros were just about finished. Let me tell you about these heros. They were served not on a nice italian hero roll but on half a loaf of italian bread. This made them almost impossible to hold in your hand and too big to fit in mouth without cutting. Because of the huge size there was not enough filling inside and most of our bites were of bread. My sausage and pepper hero had peppers that were raw. Not partially cooked, but actully raw. Not edible in my opinion. I had to remove all of them and had a hard time cutting even with the knife. They had the nerve to charge $8.50 for that crap.

Now that we were finished, the remaining order is served and to no ones surprise, at this point, the middle of the calzones were cold and the sauce is served in a little plastic cup with a lid. This is something used for take out orders, not for an eat in lunch. And the pizza, soggy crust. Can you believe this, a soggy pizza in a restaurant that specializes in pizza in the main entrance area??

Let me reiterate the mess that came out of this kitchen:

1. Menus not handed to customers 2. No ice until requested. 3. Diet and regular sodas served in identical carafe making it impossible to tell regular from diet. 4. Water was never served as requested 5. Only 1 straw supplied after request 6. Food served in 2 parts with a 15+ minute gap. We could not eat at the same time as food that was delivered first would have been cold 7. Heros served on regular loaf of italian bread with not enough fillling to take up such a large area 8. Peppers in sausage and pepper hero were raw, not partially cooked, actually raw 9. Calzones not fully cooked, luke warm in middle 10. Sauce for calzone served in a plastic take out cup with a lid. 11. Pizza had soggy crust 12. Menu was grossly overpriced for the food and service.

Would I ever go there again. Not even if I was starving. And if anyone spends their money there after reading this you have no one to blame but yourself.